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Weeping Bitterlie

April 2023
1min read

After reading “Assassin on Trial” in your June/July 1981 issue, I wonder if Charles Guiteau might have sung two songs at his hanging—the one quoted in the article and the one enclosed here, which I’ve known ever since I can remember. I wonder if anyone knows any more verses—if, indeed, there are any more. The song may not be error-free; I’ve only my memory to depend upon:


My name is Charles Guiteau My name I’ll never deny I leave my aged parents In sorrow now to die But little did they think I While in my youthful bloom Would be taken to the scaffold To meet my fatal doom. My sister came to the prison To bid me a last good-bye She threw her arms around me And wept most bitterlie. She cried, “My darling brother, Today you’ll surely die For the murder of James A. Garfield Upon a scaffold high.”

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